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Anyways, I have two computers, a desktop and laptop (Lenovo X60). I want to create an image of a clean Windows 7 installation, after some tweaks, (but without any extraneous applications installed) that is capable of being deployed onto both of these systems, so that instead of doing a custom install of Windows 7 and re-doing those little, time-consuming tweaks, I can just deploy this standard image of Windows 7 onto either of these machines when I want to do a "fresh" install.

My question is, is the correct way to do this to use the WAIK for Windows 7 and follow along the lines of these instructions? And that will be able to create an (standard but tweaked) image of Windows 7 I can use for multiple computers, even ones that have differing hardware?

Yes, that is the recommended way to create Win7 Images, using MS tools.

You may want to check out this link for information about the sysprep and WAIK procedures. I found this guide helpful when we started our Win7 project here.
However, we've now gone a different route using Novell tools, which is unlikely that you will have access to.

Making images is what I do here, so I'l do my best to help you out as I can.
First off before I can though, does your windows license permit you to make an image for more than the purpose of a backup?

Yes, that is the recommended way to create Win7 Images, using MS tools.

You may want to check out this link for information about the sysprep and WAIK procedures. I found this guide helpful when we started our Win7 project here.
However, we've now gone a different route using Novell tools, which is unlikely that you will have access to.

Making images is what I do here, so I'l do my best to help you out as I can.
First off before I can though, does your windows license permit you to make an image for more than the purpose of a backup?

Novell tools? For Linux or NOS? I used Netware for the longest time and it was a shock seeing it in print.

Yes, that is the recommended way to create Win7 Images, using MS tools.

You may want to check out this link for information about the sysprep and WAIK procedures. I found this guide helpful when we started our Win7 project here.
However, we've now gone a different route using Novell tools, which is unlikely that you will have access to.

Making images is what I do here, so I'l do my best to help you out as I can.
First off before I can though, does your windows license permit you to make an image for more than the purpose of a backup?

Novell tools? For Linux or NOS? I used Netware for the longest time and it was a shock seeing it in print.

ZenWorks. I understand it is based on Linux.
Our Novell Guru looks after this part. He's written all the scripts to make the sysprep phase zero-touch.

Yeah, I thought about the native Windows backup image, but the more I read the more I got the impression it wasn't always a 100% thing. Better to be safe than sorry.

Also, yeah I have licenses for Windows for both my machines, the main reason is that I didn't want to go through the time-consuming process of tweaking Windows every time I had/wanted to do a clean install.

For just a couple of computers, WAIK seems to be overkill. What I would do for each computer is to install win7, drivers and apps, update everything including windows updates, tweak to my heart's content, then image to a suitable external media such as an external hard drive, using a free/ paid program like Macrium Reflect. Thats it.

Everytime I was fed up with the installed system, I would just restore from the image.

You can explore other imaging programs like Acronis Trueimage also which let you create secure zones (like separate partitions) on the computer hdd itself.

For just a couple of computers, WAIK seems to be overkill. What I would do for each computer is to install win7, drivers and apps, update everything including windows updates, tweak to my heart's content, then image to a suitable external media such as an external hard drive, using a free/ paid program like Macrium Reflect. Thats it.

Everytime I was fed up with the installed system, I would just restore from the image.

You can explore other imaging programs like Acronis Trueimage also which let you create secure zones (like separate partitions) on the computer hdd itself.

Will something like Macrium Reflect allow me to deploy the images onto computers with different hardware, or will I have to do 2 sets of images for each system?

The main problem with using a single image for different computers will of course be the different drivers and possibly some registry entries... As gregrocker has pointed out, Acronis solves this common issue with Acronis® Backup & Recovery™ 10 Universal Restore, a fully integrated module that restores servers or workstations to different hardware or to a virtual machine.

Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 is used to create a transportable image that disassociates the data from the old machine’s underlying hardware. Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Universal Restore loads in the new hardware’s own drivers so that the image from the previous hardware platform will allow the machine to be flawlessly restored to a different hardware platform, complete with operating system, applications, data and all previous settings. Recovery can be implemented to an existing system, to a new system with different hardware, or to a virtual server, in minutes..

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